The Unveiling Of The Fire Booster
by Silver Booster
Summary: Sequel to Silver Streak. Everything's gone back to normal, but strange events start happening. A mysterious guy is hanging around, a new booster is on the scene, and my past is catching up to me. What's this guy hiding? And what's Armeggedon doing here?


**Note: I WAS going to submit this story WAAAAAY later in the year, as in, AFTER "The Truth Revealed" was finished. But I had a heap of spare time and my head was just over flowing with this pesky Fire Booster business. Soooooo . . . I decided to give this a whirl.** **And yes, it IS a continuation of "Silver Streak."**

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own this wonderful show.**

_**The Unveiling Of The Fire Booster**_

"That's it, keep going . . . BALANCE! Use her mag energy to your advantage! LIKE THAT . . . no, hold on, HOLD ON!"

That would be the sound of the Dragon Booster a.k.a. Artha Penn trying his best to teach me how to compete in the Horn of Libris race.

**CRASH!**

And THAT would be the sound of the Silver Booster a.k.a. me tumbling to the ground after failing to hit the target with my jakk-stik. Instead, I had lost my concentration on the stream of silver mag-energy and hit the target with my _head_.

So far, things had been pretty normal around Penn Stables. I had rescued Artha from potentially fatal gear, and now we both could compete in races. I had revealed who the Shadow Booster was AND gotten into the academy, and Artha and I had been competing against each other more than once.

Picking myself up, I heard Silver-Streak (or Silver, as I sometimes called her) laugh and glance over at Beau, who laughed as well.

"Oh yeah, sure, blame me for not swinging my jakk-stik in time. You know, if you would not have run off, I would have hit that target!" I yelled, my sarcasm showing annoyance. "At least Wyldfyr's on my side, right girl?"

Wyldfyr just snickered, then proceeded to have a conversation with Silver. Normally, I would have amused myself with my own thoughts, but being the Silver Booster meant that I could understand what they were saying.

"_Right. Amateur. Silver, __**please**__ explain to me why I should be on her side._" Wyldfyr inquired.

_ I'm not really sure. What do you expect if she __**uses her head**__ and not her jakk-stik? _ replied Silver.

"_Probably something around the lines of_ _her crashing into Moordryd, breaking her arm, and having to make a home of Dragon-City Medical for the next six months._" Wyldfyr retorted.

"WHAT?! Amateur? Using my head? BREAKING MY ARM?!" I screeched at the two hydrags. "You know, you aren't that good of a mag-blaster yourself! Or Wyldfyr!"

This is what's happened every single scaling day lately. Silver and I have been at each other's throats just because of a minor gear incident a few days ago. I mistakenly activated red thrusters instead of ramming gear, so instead of battling Moordryd, we skidded into a stray pedestrian and almost scared her to death, crashed into a sign, and took the sign with us off the track. Luckily, I was still on Silver, and we managed to fly upward via her wings, and come in 5th place. Considering the fact that 7 racers were on the track, I would say that we didn't exactly rule the track.

It didn't take long for Silver to make a comeback. _Well, at least I'M not the one crashing into signs all the time!_

"Hey! That was a simple error of pushing the wrong button. Anyone could have messed up like that!" I screamed back. Silver was _**really**_ starting to get on my nerve . . .

In perfect I'm-not-going-to-be-beat-by-my-rider fashion, Silver pushed me again. _Sure, but those people PROBABLY wouldn't have scared that girl out of the crowd and rearranged the signs in Mid-City, would they?_

I thought about this, then replied, "Well, you're right. And those people probably wouldn't have done this!" Then, I shot a mag-blast at Silver who, caught off guard, could not react. Silver, enraged, shot back a blast of her own, and a simple word-war had turned into a free-for-all mag-fest!

I tried my best to keep up, but I had only been using mag-energy to fight for around 2 months, so Silver had a HUGE advantage. Which, as if I wasn't mad enough already, only got me more ticked off. In this mess, I reflected back on what had happened about 4 weeks ago.

(Read Silver-Streak to figure out what I'm talking about.) Mortis's 'mag-portal' or whatever must not have been strong enough, as I was back in Dragon City within a minute. And in the blink of an eye, everything returned to normal. I went back to racing for a few weeks, then came the minor gear mix-up, and finally all the chaos led up to now.

After Silver fired a particularly strong mag-blast at my head, Kitt Wonn intervened, followed by Parm. As usual, he was carrying some new gizmo.

"Katie, Silver, please! Do you two have to argue over every little thing?" Without waiting for a reply from either of us, she added, "I'm going to practice for the Fire Cave race in a few days. Silver's going to work WITH you and not fry you, YOU'RE going to try your best to master the track, and Parm's NOT going to be disturbed. Got it?"

I hadn't seen Kitt that ticked off ever since Moordryd had almost fried her by trying to push her into a vat of lava. Stupidly, I nodded in agreement. Then, noticing Silver had not moved, I elbowed her with just a little more force than I intended. Two seconds later, I was flying backwards after yet another mag-blast from Silver found its mark.

Just a few moments after that, I was crashing into a large cardboard box. That was just about enough of this, so I started mumbling under my breath. _Dumb dragon, red-draconium attitude as big as Dragon City, couldn't find her way out of a scaling paper bag_ . . .

I was setting myself up for a major fight when I spotted something that looked like fire near Squire's End. Glancing over my shoulder, I tried to pinpoint the location of the 'fire'. That didn't exactly go as planned, as my forward momentum caused the box to topple over backwards. With reflexes that could only come from proper training, I righted myself in the space of three seconds. Now on my feet, I ran over to Squire's End to see if my eyes were fooling me.

My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. I told myself to write this down, because no one would ever believe me if I told them what was going on.

The Magma-class red and orange dragon running through the city was being ridden by a girl with red, orange, scarlet, and yellow armor. The armor was adorned with fire designs, as was the dragon. Flames flared up on either side of the girl's helmet, up her gloves, and in the middle of her jakk-stik. Her dragon had yellow, red, and orange flames running up her legs and her tail. Yellow flames curved upward on either side of her head, making it look as if she had been born in lava. She looked much like Phorrj, except for the coloring. And her tail fit the color scheme, flaring out about three times as much as Coershun's. Basically, her dragon looked like a cross between the Furox and Phorrj.

All this fire made me wonder _Could this be the Fire Booster? Who is she? And where_ . . . I didn't finish the thought. I had spotted something else, leaning up against the corner of a building. Some_one_ else, actually. I maneuvered myself closer to get a better look. Once I got close enough, I figured some of it out. It was just some guy leaning against a gear shop window. Curious, I walked slowly toward him. Once I got close enough to see him, I stopped dead in my tracks. Okay, let's add another adjective or two.

Some _very hot_ guy. I'll never know why, but I like guys that skateboard and play the electric guitar on sight. This guy wasn't doing either of those, but leaning there, he was just . . . let's say, I had to keep myself from fainting.

The guy I was looking at (not staring at) had shoulder-length jet-black hair with faint red highlights and dark blue eyes. He was wearing a dark red shirt under a black leather jacket, dark blue jeans, and black shoes with fire on them. His arms were crossed and he was holding a light green gem of some sort.

This guy _could not_ have been born in Dragon City. He _has _to be just visiting or something. For whatever the reason, I decided to walk on over there and talk to him.

Trying to act casual, I said, "Hey . . . stupid question, what are you doing over here? Where's your dragon?" _Oh sure, just BLOW IT! That'll make him like you! _I yelled at myself.

Maybe it was just the angle, but the intense stare he was aiming at me made me wish I was on Silver and could run away. It was like having the Muhorta staring at you . . . times a million.

_Just chill, _I told myself. "Mind if I show you around?" I asked. _At least that was a halfway sensible question._ I took his slow smirk as a yes. With that, I started to run off. Not hearing footsteps behind me, I looked around. There he was, right beside me. Confused, I looked down at his shoes, which had flames coming out of them.

Shoving that aside, I started to run around Mid-City, pointing out different landmarks. Then I moved on to Work Town, Down City, and then back up to Sun City. By the time I reached Sun City, I was panting and out of breath. As usual, he was right beside me during the whole tour, but somehow I knew that he wished I would have run faster. As I skidded to a stop, trying to catch my breath, he looked down at me with a raised eyebrow. Maybe he thought he could have gone longer than me without having to catch his breath.

"Anything else you'd like to see before I pass out?" I asked, my trademark sarcasm showing. He just crossed his arms, smirked and rolled his eyes. I took it as "Can you _please_ get up already?" I have no idea why, but somehow I just found this whole scene incredibly funny. Don't ask me why, but I started to hysterically laugh at both of us.

After I finally retrieved my head from the ground and screwed it back on, I saw him smiling at me. _He sure doesn't talk much. _Just like me to state the obvious.

While I was zoned out, he apparently ran off. When I came back to reality, I saw him standing over in a corner, waving at me. I had to practically drag myself over there, but it was well worth it.

He took out an old-looking photograph, stared at it for a moment, then handed it to me. "You remind me of her," he said.

I looked to see what he was talking about. There were three 'people' in the picture. One was a black and red hedgehog that looked very familiar, another was a young girl with curly blonde hair and a blue dress, and the last one was a man who looked like he could have been the girl's grandfather. A very large cannon of some sort was featured in the background. For some weird reason, I just _knew _I had seen that hedgehog before _somewhere_ . . .

I jerked my head up and looked around. He had vanished, save for a slight aftermath of a teleporting move.

_How weird, _I thought. _This guy appears out of nowhere, doesn't say hardly anything for the whole tour, then vanishes without a trace. Come to think of it, he never let that green gem out of his sight, even for a few seconds. Maybe it's connected to him vanishing somehow, or to the picture. And what the scales is that huge cannon?_

"KATIE! It's almost 5:00, where have you been?!?" Great. Just what I need. I regretfully turned around to find a very worried Kitt looking at me. Trying to be casual, I stuffed the picture in my pocket. Thankfully, she didn't seem to notice.

"I was . . . just running through Dragon City," I explained. "I had a lot of things on my mind, so I thought running around might help me straighten some of the issues out. I know I should have told you, but by that time, I was halfway to Down City." That was what I loved to do; cover up the lie with something I actually did. It always sounds like the truth that way.

This seemed to satisfy Kitt. "Alright. If you were just frustrated about something, at least that's better than kicking a hole in a wall. (Once, I had actually gone red-draconium in front of Kitt and kicked in a stall wall. Hey, it wasn't one of _our_ stalls, so at least it wasn't our problem.) But what was that thing that you stuffed in your pocket?"

I pretended to look confused for a moment. "What? Oh, that. That was just something I found in Work Town. It looked familiar, so I thought I'd pick it up . . . just in case I figure out what it is. Maybe it can explain why I'm here," I joked.

Again, it seemed as if I had evaded the truth. "Okay," Kitt said, "Now get back to practicing!"

After a few days passed with no sign of whoever that guy was, I tried to focus on the job at hand. The Horn of Libris race was just about ready to get started, but my mind kept wandering. It was a chore just to keep my head in the game! How in the world would I ever be able to concentrate on the targets?

I jerked my head back just as the gates opened and 7 dragons bolted out! Artha was steering Silver, as my luck with her wasn't all that good. The two dragons behind us were not important, so I focused on making it past Wulf. He was in the air, heading for a target. I decided to play a trick on him. I pointed my free hand downward, then pointed up. We had worked on this signal for days, and I was quickly magged toward a different target. While Artha steered Silver into Hyve, I was preparing to strike my target. Just as the right amount of distance was obtained between Silver and Hyve, I hit the target. The steel wall dropped down, allowing us to ride over it, then it bounced back and smacked Hyve in the face!

I grinned; that trick will never get old! Now, on to Kitt. Wait a second, what's Kitt doing here? No matter, I'll take care of her with my own little move. I had been secretly training myself to harness other draconium colors and use whatever color the draconium was as extra power, almost exactly like Libris could. Now, its time had come. I conjured a ball of silver draconium around my hand, then concentrated on the red draconium trail. In about two seconds, I could feel my silver draconium turning into red. Wyldfyr seemed in a trance, exactly like Cyrano when I had practiced on him. Unclenching my hand, I saw a now-red streak of mag energy heading for Kitt's mag trail. When it got near the trail, I knew it had gotten more powerful than the very red draconium it had come from. It shot straight through the trail, and Kitt soon came tumbling down.

Perfect, now to take care of the two hydrags in front: Moordryd and Khatah. I decided to use my latest trick against them. Notifying Artha, I crouched, ready to pounce. Then, I jumped off Silver and on and off the two jakk-stiks that were being used, my blue draconium showing as I executed aerial stunts. Then, I gathered my silver draconium around my feet, preparing to do a mag-jump. Spotting a freshly hit target, I prepared myself.

"Sorry to leave you guys hangin', but I kind of have a race to win," I said, then I jumped toward the target and reversed the effect. Another steel wall bounced back and smacked them in the face! Then I reversed the strike, causing the wall to go down so that we could safely run across it.

Perfect, this race is ours! We were so far ahead, I couldn't see where the 2nd place racer was. The corners of my mouth curved in a victory smile. I was sure that the prize money would be ours! Then, I just happened to glance over at the side of the track . . . and I almost fainted.

There was that mystery guy, running alongside where I was, and easily keeping up with Silver. Now, I had more reasons than one to smile. He glanced at me and grinned. I noticed he was still holding on to that gem. Now, just where had he come from?

I came back to reality just in time to spot a steel wall in front of us! Making this move up, I jumped on top of the target, launched myself off of it, and smacked another target. The wall went down, and we were safe. Plus, he seemed impressed with my stunts!

The finish line was right ahead of us, but I was too busy looking (no, I was NOT staring!) at that guy to notice that Moordryd had thrown a drain whip at us! Silver instantly slowed down, and Moordryd was catching up to us. I rolled my eyes, then did the gear-reverse move that I had used to save Artha. The whip dropped to the ground useless, and we crossed the finish line in first place!

"Drac moves out there, Katie!" Lance said to me. Of course, we were back at Penn Stables, and I had collected the prize money a few hours ago.

"Right, now could we please speed up this little chat? I'm really stressed, and I'd like to just run around Dragon City for, say, one and a half hours, okay?" I commented restlessly. _Not the right thing to say._

"Okay Katie, who did you meet?" Lance asked. He may have been young, but he sure catches on fast!

"No one, alright? I can't run around Dragon City without something being wrong?"

"You can't run around Dragon City if we say you can't," Kitt said, quickly being joined by Artha. This was _just_ perfect. "And we say you can't. You have to practice for the next race."

This was certainly not what I had been expecting. "What?!? Come on, I've been practicing every single scaling day! Can't I have a day off for once?"

"First of all, you've been practicing every _other_ day, and second of all, you're not going anywhere tonight. Besides, you need to learn how to read ancient scrolls so you can keep up with the other Academy racers."

"I'll do that some other time! Marianas and I agreed to street race one-on-one tonight, plus she promised to teach me some new moves." (NOT!)

Kitt and Artha conversed for a while, trying to see my point of view. I amused myself with my own thoughts for a few moments, then I came back to reality.

"Alright. I guess you can take today off, but you have to be at the Academy early tomorrow. And no slacking off this week!"

"Of course I'll come early, and I won't slack off! I'll be back around 6:00, okay? (It was currently 3:54.)" Without waiting for a reply, I hopped on Silver and ran off. Tonight was the night I would show that mystery guy my little secret. Running over to a dark corner, I took out my medallion.

"Streak of silver!" I called, then I slid my amulet into its gauntlet. This was what I lived for; the transformation. It always made me feel so powerful, I sometimes envisioned myself taking on Armeggedon and winning. But then I would always put sense back in my head and come to my senses. THAT was something that would NEVER happen.

I crept out of the dark in my Silver Booster armor, and Silver had switched her colors around. Spotting him leaning against that same gear shop window, I bolted out of my hiding spot. Grinning behind my helmet, I envisioned his reaction. The look on his face would be priceless!

He, on the other hand, took one look at me in my armor, then dropped into a fighting stance. He grabbed his gem, which had started to glow, and held it out in front of him.

"Relax, okay? It's just me," I called. Then, I promptly jumped off of Silver and removed my medallion. This was going to be good!

All he did was blink at me, then roll his eyes and grin. It was as if all of his friends had a secret life and identity! So not only had I found the most quiet guy ever, I had also found the one that was the least likely to be surprised. Go figure!

"Ever ridden a dragon before?" I asked, gesturing toward Silver. His smile disappeared, and in its place was a look that conveyed a longing of some sort. I thought I would finally get something out of him when he turned to the west and whistled.

Confused, I glanced over a Squire's End. Running toward us was _the_ coolest dragon ever! It looked like Beau, except for the coloring. Its tail and legs were black, red, and yellow. Its eyes were red, and different red designs covered its body. It looked as if it were the very example of living fire.

"Dark-fire," he told me, gesturing toward his dragon. How ironic; instead of me surprising him, he bowls me over! No fair!

"Nice, but I bet you've never flown in the sky. I don't see a pair of wings on your dragon," I told him. Silver knew what to do, and revealed her beautiful wings. He didn't reply, though he seemed disappointed. "Well, want to?"

His eyes lit up. I took this as a yes, and led him over to Silver. She growled and bared her teeth at him, since no one except for the Silver Booster could ride her.

"Silver, come on. Don't make me have to hit you," I threatened, grabbing my jak-stik. If she wasn't short on common sense, she'd know what to do.

As he began to mount, Silver's angry face darted around. Seems she was short on common sense, because she started to bite him. I got there first and whacked her upside the head with my jak-stik, then I hit her right in the mouth. After the initial shock, she turned her surprised and hurt eyes on me.

"I'm not fooling around with your red-draconium stunts, Silver-Streak," I told her. "Try that again and I'll knock you out." Silver seemed stunned, like maybe she couldn't believe I had the nerve to whack her that hard. But then she obediently lowered her head and crouched down, making it easier for him to get on her back.

After he had gotten on, I took my position near the front. Silver accepted both of us, though she kept shooting glances at me. I wanted this ride to be the best, so I leaned forward. "Stop doing that, or we're both going to fly into a sign," I warned.

After we were all settled, I stalled by taking out the photo he had given me. Maybe after a while, I would realize that I've never seen any of those people before, but I had yet to confirm this theory. My eyes lingered on the cannon for a while, then I managed to stuff the picture back in my pocket.

"Let's go, Silver!" I yelled. In about two seconds, Silver was running through Squire's End flapping her wings. This lasted a few moments before we were suddenly up in the sky. Secretly, I had only ridden this way two times, but we flew around like I was an expert. Although I knew that the one thing I should _not_ do was look down, I did so anyway. And once again, I started to feel dizzy because we were up so high. Before I really had a chance to let everything spin around, I noticed the 'Fire Booster' running around Squire's End again. This was getting a little too weird for comfort. I nudged him on the shoulder, pointing downward.

"Hey, look at that," I said, indicating the Fire Booster. "Never saw them around before, have you? Doesn't she look a lot like the---"

"Fire Booster?" he finished. "Yeah, I know." I looked at him in confusion. How could he know this stuff? And who was she, exactly? I shoved that aside, deciding that I would show him the huge clock tower in Work Town first.

"Long way or short way? The long way takes more time and you get to see a lot more, but the short way's more fun." I looked back at him, waiting for an answer. He seemed clueless, so I provided a little more details. "The long way means we fly over the roads to get there, and it also means that it takes longer. The short way . . . well, it's more of a 'leap of faith' sort of thing, and it's much faster. I think you'd like the short way." This caused him to grin at me. "Short way it is, then."

I whispered our plan to Silver. As always, she was eager to help, and she seemed _very _eager to take the short way.

"Brace yourself," I warned, "this is going to get dizzy!" We were circling upward, and he was oblivious to the fact that we were going to be shooting downward in about two seconds!

"Now!" I shouted, and in about one millisecond we were shooting straight down and spinning at the same time, Silver having folded her wings against her body. To every other completely sane person, we looked like an aqua and silver bullet. Even though we were spinning, I could still see him behind me. A full smile was on his face, and he was obviously enjoying himself. I, on the other hand, was wondering just where we were going.

"Silver! Land near the tower in Work Town, and in the name of the Magna Draconis, don't crash into anything!" I shouted.

We continued spiraling downward for about thirty seconds before Silver suddenly spread her wings and began to gently carry us toward the ground. While I pondered over who the Fire Booster could be, something was going on behind me. I didn't know it at the time, but he had taken out a black scrap of paper and a red pen. With me zoned out, he began writing something in draconian.

As we landed, I decided to show off. I grabbed my jak-stik, tossed it into the air, and did a mag-jump off Silver. While in the air, I executed a perfect triple back-flip. Coming out of the last flip, I gracefully snagged my jak-stik and landed nicely on the ground. Before I could look back, I spotted a piece of paper blowing around. Normally, I would have ignored such a thing, but maybe it was a clue. I ran over and grabbed it. It was black and red with gold draconian writing.

"When the prophecy comes true, Shadow will return, and darkness will envelope Dragon City. The three boosters will be helpless, and the chosen ones will be separated forever. None will survive, and the remains of a past they never knew will be forgotten."

This caused a million questions: _Who's Shadow? Who are the chosen ones? What remains of a past? What prophecy will come true? I've never read anything like this in the scrolls, so where did this come from? 'Three boosters' . . . what if they mean me? Chosen ones . . . I think I've heard a song like that somewhere, but where? Does this tie in to that mystery guy? A past they never knew . . . wait, if that means me, what's going to happen?_ I stuffed this in my pocket, right next to the old photo.

While jogging back toward Silver, I completely forgot what I had been doing, and instead of explaining the tower's history, I got back on Silver and just sat there. Those words really got to me, and I just couldn't take my mind off them. I decided to talk to him as a distraction.

"We've known each other for . . . what, 2 weeks now? And you still haven't told me your name. Mine's Katie, by the way. And of course you already know that I'm the Silver Dragon Booster. If you don't mind me asking, what's that gem you keep dragging around? And why do you . . ." I never finished the question. He had handed me that scrap of paper, and apparently wanted me to read it.

"What, is this supposed to be your name?" I asked dumbly. He crossed his arms and rolled his eyes at me. I took it as a signal that he thought I was being stupid.

"Oh yeah, real funny. You know, I still haven't asked you about---" I cut off in mid-sentence and gasped. Written on the paper in red draconian letters was "Shadow".

My alarmed eyes darted from the paper to Shadow, then to where I had found the paper, then back to my pocket. Fumbling around, I finally withdrew the paper and read it over again. _Wait, if he's Shadow, then where did he come from? And could someone please tell me, in plain draconian, what the scales is going on?_

In a state that could be compared to panic, I wildly looked around. Suddenly, Dragon City just didn't seem the same. There was so much I didn't know, and much of it was sitting right behind me.

"Okay Shadow, could you please tell me what's going on?" I asked, shoving the photo and the paper into his hands. Something in his eyes told me that he didn't want to be found out, but it wasn't like I could let this whole fiasco go by unnoticed.

"First of all, who's that (I pointed to the girl in the photo), who's that (I pointed to the hedgehog), what does that mean (I pointed to the paper), and what in the name of the Magna Draconis are you hiding from me?" I questioned. It may have come across as a challenge, but I didn't care. I just wanted this business cleared up ASAP.

I stared at him as his gaze settled on the picture. I thought I saw some longing in his eyes, followed by a blank stare. To my surprise, nothing told me that he even knew about the picture. Handing it back to me, he then began reading the gold draconian letters. It surprised me that he could read draconian, and as he read, his face went through a series of expressions. First was bafflement, as if he couldn't make any sense of what he was reading. Then was disappointment for whatever the reason, then finally a sort of reluctant acceptance.

"So who are these people?" I asked, not being able to hide the eagerness in my voice. I waited for his reply, but I only heard an indistinct answer. Either he didn't want to tell me, or he was hiding something other than secrets.

"I'll only ask you one more time. Who are they?" I pushed, trying to get an answer. I didn't care if I had to repeat it over and over; I wanted an answer. And when I want something bad enough, I'll stop at nothing to get it.

His answer was barely audible, but I could hear it. "I- . . .I don't know." With that, he got up, jumped off Silver, and slowly ran over to the other side of a boulder and out of sight.

I stared blankly at where he used to be. Something seemed very familiar . . . I decided to let the name roll around to try to get me to remember anything. _Shadow . . . Shadow . . .Wait, that hedgehog . . . Shadow, the chosen one, they're the __same person_ Realizing this, I ran over to where he ran off to.

Shadow was leaning against a ledge, gem in hand, his eyes downcast. "What do mean you don't know?" I asked gently. "How can you say I remind you of someone if you don't know who that someone is?"

He didn't reply, save for nearly closing his eyes. "Come on Shadow, look at me." I moved in front of where he was, trying to look him in the eye. "Do you have any idea who these people are?"

He seemed reluctant to talk to me. "I . . .already told you."

"But why don't you want to talk to me? I can tell something's bothering you. Why can't you tell me?" I asked, on the verge of tears.

I could see tears forming in his eyes. "Just . . . leave me alone." With that, he ran away.

I started after him. "Shadow! Don't do this! You know you can tell me anything! Why can't you just accept that?" He continued running away, and it seemed he was telling the truth.

There was nothing I wanted more in the world than to run up to him and help him figure out who those people were. But how could I? With so many conflicting emotions, I didn't know what to do. Never having felt this way about someone before, I just stood there.

Suddenly, I just wanted to get away from him. I ran back to Silver, told her to take me back to Penn Stables, and just sat there. Why doesn't he believe me? Why can't he just tell me what's bothering him? I found myself crying, but who was I crying for?

It was sometime next week when I saw him again. Kitt had sent me to the gear room to pick up some ramming gear. Once I found the scaling box, I held the requested gear in my hand as I began to leave. A blast of black draconium shot over my head, and I jerked my head up. Moordryd was nowhere to be found!

A glance at Squire's End told me what was going on. Someone was trying to fry Shadow!

I quickly transformed, then I ran over to Silver, the ramming gear forgotten. Once I got her stall unlocked, I raced out of sight.

I ran through Dragon City, tailing Shadow. Black blasts were coming from everywhere, but I couldn't see who was shooting them. I chased him through Mid City, though I was quickly falling farther behind. I almost couldn't see him anymore when I let my common sense take over. The only way I would be able to keep up was if I did that 'speed-up' move again. It was at that moment when I finally realized how fast we were going. We were running at nearly 200 miles per hour, for dragon's sake! And just _how _was I not keeping up with him? Could he run at the speed of sound or something?

I laughed at this situation. Running at the speed of sound? In a million years! If I told anyone about this, they'd think I was nuts. And that my whole life was just pure chaos, which would probably be true. Nothing but complete and total chaos . . . Come to think of it, that gem he's holding looks kind of like an emerald. It is light green, and emeralds are green, aren't they?

I began to think about this. _That thing does look exactly like an emerald. It's as if it always appears in the middle of . . . chaos. Chaos Emerald? _I knew I had heard of something like that. Maybe it was back on that island? Maybe that's where he was going?

I finally removed my head from the clouds and put it back on my head. There was only one way I would be able to catch up with him and find out if my conclusions were right.

I closed my eyes and concentrated. It wasn't just speed that went into this move; you had to be one with your dragon in order to reach top speed. I tried to see what was going on in front of me, and after some time, I instinctively knew that I was getting closer and closer to where Shadow was. Once I was almost running next to him, I opened my eyes, but kept the move going.

"Shadow! What's going on here?" I shouted. He didn't reply, but I spied a black sheet of paper coming toward me. Automatically, I reached up and grabbed it. Only two words were written on it: 'The Prophecy'.

I thought about what I had read last week. Didn't it say something about him returning somewhere? And something about the three boosters? Was he going back to where he came from? Where _was_ he going?

Confused, I continued to chase him through Dragon City. We ran everywhere, even down to Old City. Just as quickly we were heading back the way we came. I was starting to get a little exhausted, but I kept chasing him. I wanted to know just where he was going. We reached the Sun City borders when I suddenly lost him.

One glance at the photo told me exactly where he was. There was one spot in Sun City that looked just like my memories of that island. For some reason, I knew I would find him there. I just needed to get through the Sun City borders.

Combining all of my training, I managed to avoid detection. Now, to find that spot. This would be easy; just follow the trail of singed ground. After about ten minutes of searching, I spotted green grass around a corner. I had him now, and he will have to give me some answers! I quickly made the turn . . . and I gasped.

Shadow was there, all right, but he wouldn't be giving me any answers. He was laying face down in the grass, his arms flung in front of him. The grass around him was burned, and his gem was nowhere in sight.

I jumped off Silver and slowly walked toward him. From the moment I had gotten here, he hadn't moved, and he still laid there motionless. Kneeling down, I turned his face toward me. His eyes were closed, and he appeared to be knocked out.

"Shadow?" I said, trying to get him to hear me. He didn't move. "Shadow! Come on Shadow, don't do this! I know I was hard on you before, but I never meant for this to happen! It doesn't have to end like this!" I found myself sobbing. It shouldn't end like this! "Please Shadow! It does not have to be like this! I can--" I stopped screaming, noticing a shadow looming over us. My emotions switched from broken to positively furious in one moment.

"**Armeggedon**? You stupid scale-scraping _HYDRAG_! How DARE you do this to him!" Furious, I fired the strongest and most powerful mag-blast in my life at him. And I wouldn't stop until I had him knocked out . . . or worse. Silver joined in, and we were soon beating the scales out of him. It only took a few moments for my hate-filled blasts to knock him head-first into a wall. That wasn't enough, and I repeatedly threw him against the wall time after time until I judged him to be in far worse shape than Shadow.

"It's over Shadow. Come on!" I called, tears streaming down my face. "I did that for you, okay? I did it for you!" Still, he remained motionless. I made my way over to him, then knelt down. Absentmindedly, I ran my fingers through his black hair. "It won't end like this! It can't!" My tears made his hair even blacker.

I don't know how long I was sitting there. Soon, Silver came over and laid down next to me. She motioned with her head for me to try something. Heartbroken, I agreed to try it.

I placed my hand gently over his heart, trying to at least get some draconium out of him. It didn't surprise me that his color was black. Then, I mixed it with my white draconium and held the small sphere between us, waiting for it to do something. The sphere turned into a Yin-Yang symbol, and whatever else it did, I'll never know. I was too busy crying. What I did know was that I was glowing with black draconium, and Shadow was doing the same thing, only his draconium was white. This soon passed, and Shadow still didn't move.

"I don't know what to do Silver. I've tried everything I can think of," I confessed to my dragon. Silver seemed as sad as I was. This was the first time I remembered what that note had said. _Separated . . ._ _forever_. It seemed like that was what was happening.

Defeated, I removed my medallion. I didn't care if people saw me. I didn't care if they had witnessed everything. I just wanted Shadow back.

I tried one last time, but the minute I looked at him, I started crying. _If this is what was meant to be, then let the Magna Draconis strike me down right now._

My heart leaped. Finally, he was breathing! I ran over and sat next to him. His eyes were still closed and is was obviously hard to breath, but at least he was conscious!

"If you heard me, which I know you did, you know that I meant every word I said, Shadow. You will never hear words more heartfelt," I said to him. I'll never know if he heard me.

I ran my fingers through his hair. It was damp from my tears. I would give him the energy he needed, no matter what. Easily gaining control over Armeggedon's black draconium, I transferred it to Shadow. Somehow, I knew there would be an explosion that I would rather not be in the middle of. After the explosion passed, I tentatively called, "Shadow? You okay?"

Though the dust I could see him struggling to get up! I ran over to him, lending assistance. He was repeatedly coughing, but his eyes were open. "Don't try to move, Shadow. I'm right beside you." I gently turned his face toward mine and waited.

It took a moment for him to recognize me, but I did see his expression soften. "Katie?" he rasped. It was heartbreaking just to watch him struggle.

"Yes Shadow, I'm right beside you. I always have been."

After a few hours of sitting next to him, he finally recovered his energy. Holding my hand, he led me over to a corner. "I- I never thought I would love someone as much as I loved Maria," he said. "But I was wrong." We both smiled. I don't know who was hugging whom, but we were. Just as he broke away, I felt a warm spot on my cheek, a telltale sign that he had just kissed me. I smiled at him, then what he said began to catch up with me. Who's Maria? Is she supposed to be that girl in the picture?

I took out the photo he had given me and stared at it. _So if she's Maria, and he used to know her, does that mean he's actually a hedgehog?_ I thought about this for a long time, then I came back to earth. I had meant to look for his emerald!

"Your gem! I'm so sorry, I meant to look for it!" I confessed.

He laughed. "Oh, stop it. It's right here."

We both got to it at the same time. It was about ten yards away from where we were standing. And it was glowing? All I knew was that this blue thing had opened and Shadow and I were sucked in!

First I looked for Shadow, but I couldn't find him. Then, I looked around at where I was. This wasn't Dragon City! This was . . . okay, so I had no clue where I was. Looking down, I saw that I was . . . a hedgehog?

"What the scales . . ."

_**TO BE CONTINUED . . .**_


End file.
